6000 species in 2026: Month 1 summary

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday, 1 February 2026 19:44


We had a long, much-needed day out yesterday along the Cuckmere and then around to Seaford Head. It was a 'ten-mile day', the sort of day that starts in the dark and ends in the dark (at a Garden Centre for Uloborus plumipes). I added about 100 species to the year list, ending the first month on 1,121 species - that's 18.7% complete. This includes a whopping 593 invertebrates in January alone!

We were joined all day by my friend Alex Worsley and it was great fun. I picked up a few missing birds, like Little Grebe, Redshank, Shelduck, Lesser Black-backed Gull and an Avocet was a nice spot along the meanders. I have still not seen a Greylag?!

Plants like Yellow Horned-poppy and Sea Mayweed were new for the year, and vacuuming big clumps of YHP is really good for shingle inverts. Including 10 Ethelcus verrucatus in one sample!!! This is a really rare weevil that only feeds on YHP, and represents more of them than I have ever seen before. I am up to 165 beetles for the year.


It was pretty cold on the beach, there's a lot of motionless staring into trays looking for stuff to move. We got the three target linys Halorates reprobus, Silometopus ambiguus and Typhocrestus digitatus but the jumpers were not coming out to play. I added about 15 spiders, putting me on 158 species in January, 171 for all arachnids.


One vac of some Viper's-bugloss returned this weevil royalty, Mogulones geographicus. Tubs described it best "Lines and lines and lines and lines."


And I rarely see Gronops lunatus, it was a very beetle-heavy day.



And the scarce coastal woodlouse with bonkers antennae, Halophiloscia couchii.


The new District 9 movie looks a bit rubbish...


Round to Seaford Head and a quick look back up the saltmarsh for known patches of Sea Wormwood, Sea Plantain, Common Sea-lavender and Common Saltmarsh-grass. Stomping past lines of bewildered tourists trying to walk along a REALLY muddy sea wall in their totally unsuitable footwear was hilarious. It was worth it though, as I got a lifer in the form of Saldula pilosella, a scarce coastal shore bug.

In the same area, the only place I know of where you can see Trichosirocalus thalhammeri.


And an unexpected Chrysolina staphylaea was only my sixth ever record.

At Hope Gap, a few easy ticks like Moon Carrot and Helicella itala.


And Alex told me what this Cladonia is, that I have been looking at up there for years as Cladonia foliacea. A lifer.


A bit of vacuuming and I got an adult female Agroeca inopina.


Many thank to everyone who has sponsored me so far, please do consider sponsoring me if you can, I am fund raising for Sussex Wildlife Trust's reserves here.

You can sign up to the pan-species listing website here, it's totally free (although donations to the team are welcome).

And finally, my book is due to be released on the 26th Feb, less than a month to go!!! You can order it here, directly from Pelagic. Also, my copies have arrived!!! People who pre-ordered it, should be getting their copies very soon! It looks amazing, I am so pleased with it.

This week; maybe some night-time rock-pooling, lichens and spiders on heaths. And maybe a bit on some arable too, all depends on the weather.

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